OBJECTIVE:
To inspire students to think about how much waste we produce
and how we dispose of it.

MATERIALS:
see list of props (listed in the skit)

KEYWORDS:
industrialist, refuse

PROCEDURE:
This skit presents the growing amount of trash in the world.
As the skit progresses, each player throws more trash on the
pile in the middle of the room so that a high stack is created.
Someone suggests one way to solve the problem is to recycle.
A discussion of ways to solve the problem of too much garbage
and trash might follow the performance (see Discussion Notes,
below).

The skit shows the children that people
have historically gotten rid of solid waste successfully by throwing
it out, burying it, or burning it, but none of these methods
solve modern urban garbage problems. The discussion should attempt
to reinforce this concept. One way this can be done is to discuss
the characters in the skit: how they disposed of their garbage
and why their methods of doing so were either satisfactory or
unsatisfactory.

Our solid waste disposal options include
reducing, reusing, recycling, composting, incinerating, and landfilling.
None of these options can stand alone. We must look at individual
regions or communities and decide what are the best solutions
for each. Any place we live, we can reduce, reuse, recycle,
and compost. It is important to do these things to conserve
our natural resources and become a wise user. Incineration
may be important in areas where there is a severe space problem
or where other options don't exist. It has a place in some solid
waste plans because it produces energy and reduces the volume
of garbage. Landfilling will always be needed but maybe
not in every community. We continue to produce items that are
not or cannot be disposed of in other ways.

Monkey:
Threw garbage down. No problem developed because no large concentration
of monkeys existed and the garbage disintegrated.

Cave dweller: Threw it.
Tossing out garbage began to be a problem because of the many
people who lived in cities, but it was easily solved by taking
the garbage out of the city.

Briton:
Threw it. A problem grew because more and more people moved to
the cities, thus producing more trash than they could get rid
of in the city.

Settler:
Had very little garbage, mostly decomposable.

Colonist: Threw it, burned, buried it. Greater trade
resulted when people did not use goods until they wore out, but
then more things to be discarded began to accumulate.

Industrialist: With a greater concentration of people in
the cities than ever before and more buying because machine-made
goods were cheaper, much more was thrown out.

Scientist: The big change to synthetics plus the use
of enormous amount of natural resources are causing tremendous
trash problems.

Look at your own community's waste
or your classroom waste to see what disposal options you can
take advantage of. Discuss the idea that we can't "throw
away" our trash; there is simply no such place as "away."
Care is always required to prevent our trash from having bad
effects on our lives. We are literally running out of some natural
resources so that any form of disposal of certain goods is self-defeating.